1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a cored food in bar shape and an apparatus used in the same. More specifically, it relates to a method and apparatus capable of continuously producing a cored food in bar shape formed by covering an inner material with an outer skin material.
2. Prior Art
The conventional method of mechanically producing a cored food in bar shape in which an inner material such as sweet smashed bean paste is covered with an outer skin material such as a flat and sticky pounded rice cake is generally well-known. The two types of food materials are each continuously extruded for molding into a bar shape from a telescopic nozzle consisting of a large nozzle and a small one.
However, the conventional method mentioned above, in which the food materials are forcibly extruded from the nozzles by means of a screw pump, a vane pump and the like, weakens the stickiness inherent in glutinous substances such as those contained in bread dough and affects the quality of the food materials. In addition, the granularity of steamed glutinous or nonglutinous rice extruded for molding is affected.
In another conventional method of producing a cored food in bar shape, an inner material is covered with a flatly extended outer skin material mounted on the belt conveyor by gradually rounding both sides of the conveyor belt portion into a tube-like shape along a pair of guides.
However, since the latter conventional method mentioned above requires an extra belt transformation space long enough to transform both fringe sides of the conveyor belt portion from its original flat shape into a tube-like shape, the apparatus as a whole can not help becoming large-scale in size.